Ukraine is not really a tourist destination, even outside of the war, as it lacks attractions, centralization, good quality restaurants & diversity of cuisine, or even much in the way of tourist accommodation compared to other European countries.
There are some decent restaurants, as with everywhere, if you look a bit harder and are willing to spend.
Many of the restaurants use the same choiceqr.com and expz.menu websites for their menus which often fails to translate
substantial parts of the menu when selecting English, or crash with a server side application error when trying to
expand the menu ingredients of a dish.
This happens even to some of my favourite restaurants in Kyiv / Lviv / Odessa.
Even worse, many places lack English entirely and don't even have English menus, including even the massive Lviv Croissants chain on the main Khreschatyk St in Kyiv.
The weather in Odessa was so bad by the end of September that I cancelled my return to Ukraine and just took the losses on my bookings. Hours of heavy downpour and the streets were flooded there was no way to cross roads without going ankle deep and soaking your shoes and lower trousers. I was soaked, cold and dripping top to bottom even with an umbrella. It's rare to see such aggressive rains in other parts of the world, and their lack of adqueate
There are hundreds of destinations in Europe that would be ahead of Ukraine to visit as a tourist.
I've used Airalo and Nomad mobile e-sims in Ukraine.
- Bolt - more drivers than OnTaxi
- OnTaxi - no drivers picked up in Kyiv
- Uklon - didn't receive the verification SMS so couldn't use it
Bus have credit card touch devices.
In Kiev it was easier, just touch card which charged it 8uah (£0.14).
In Lviv I had to select a couple of touch screen options before touching the card. You can change the menu to English.
Coaches go between Kyiv and Odessa regularly, you can book them via the Omio website:
The LikeBus has wifi (password is just 12345678) so you can ride in style and watch your favourite show as it is a 6 hour journey.
Make sure to book your rail tickets in advance before travelling between cities as they sell out.
Use the official Ukrainian government railways bookings website:
The trains are old Soviet night trains which means cabins of 4 small bunks so when you see upper and lower on the booking website, choose lower, it is more convenient than having to climb up to the upper bunk as the lower bunk is basically the couch & bed whereas the upper bunk is not so comfortable without being able to rest your legs on the ground.
The small table is also usable for the lower bunks.
Kyiv is the newer spelling derived from Ukrainian, instead of Kiev, the old spelling derived from Russian.
My favourite areas are Zoloti Vorota and Podil as that's where the better restaurants are.
- Musafir - middle eastern restaurant chain of 4 (at time of writing) with a large menu at reasonable prices. It has the usual selection of starters like cacik, hummous with optional chicken or beef, as well as good soups, and grilled meat mains. Has wifi
- Holy Burger - large upmarket burger restaurant with great seating, indoors and outdoors, a good selection of burgers and other main dishes, as well as a good selection of drinks. The holy burger is good, albeit not as big as I thought it might be, a mid-sized burger. The fries are very good, crispy and fluffy, I just wish there were more of them. Wifi 74/91 Mbit/s
- Fandom coffee bar - upmarket (expensive) cafe restaurant with plush interior, good menu, fresh juices and a good selection of desserts. The sliced chicken fillet with truffle mashed potato, brocoli and paprika sauce was good, although it took a while to come, and the fresh apple juice was decent too, served in a heavy whisky glass. Has wifi
- Gastro bar Пахне смаженим - good quality burger restaurant, highly rated with stacked burgers and decent fries. The venue itself is fairly small and on the big ring road, so the venue itself loses out to the nicer social spot Holy Burger. The burger with the cherry sauce came with a white cheese similar to feta but less salty. They give you those black gloves to eat the burger with that seems to be popular here with the gentrified burger restaurants. The extra honey-mustagard dip for the fries was decent too. Has wifi
- True Burger Bar - good gourmet burger menu with good range of burgers and even vegetarian burgers. It also has all day breakfasts and fresh orange and grapefruit juices. It is expensive by local standards, internationally tourist priced, so it was dead on a Tuesday evening while the McDonalds a few few feet along the street was packed. The burger with bacon and mango sauce was very good at 438uah (€9), and came stacked, with fries and you can choose which sauce you want, I chose bbq sauce which was exactly as I wanted. The fresh orange juice was decent and a reasonable size for 170uah (€3.50). Overall I spent €15 on a burger with fries and a drink. Wifi is open (TrueBurgerBar) 81/80 Mbit/s
- This is Пивбар на Подолі / This is PivBar - good menu, open a bit later than other places until 11pm, but by 10pm only burgers and salads were available to order. The "big beef" burger was a double stacked burger, very good in both texture, flavour and quality - it had two patties in between a triple bun, with two types of cheddar and bacon jam. This was surprisingly good but it didn't come with fries, and by the time it was delivered and I realized to order fries separately at 22:15, they had closed the kitchen. The waiter wsa not that good in English to inform me of this and ask if I wanted to order a side. At 450uah (€9.30), this is also relatively very expensive for Ukraine. The fresh squeezed orange juice (195uah / €4) was a reasonable size though, appearing bigger than 250ml. Wifi 17/19 Mbit/s
- Lviv Croissants - widespread chain, cheap and good quality large croissants with beef, chicken or other fillings. The name implies it's from Lviv but it's also all over Kiev
- Puzata Hata - Ukrainian canteen, cheap and cheerful local food. Try the borsche red soup with meat. The dumplings were ok but not that great quality of meat inside
- Urban Grill Meat & Cider - the blackberry burger was decent here, and the sweet potato fries came with a really nice sweet chilli dip that wasn't like the usual types. I didn't go with the regular fries as they were covered in cheese sauce. Burger, chips and an orange juice came to €15. Has wifi
- Chacha - Hruzynsʹkyy Restoran - decent quality Georgian with the usual dishes like traditional Karcho soup and Khinkali dumplings, although not that cheap (I dropped €16). The Karcho soup was decent but small. The Khinkali assorted 5 dumplings themselves came in a giant Khinkali, that is a lot of pastry. Do not order fresh juices here, they are tiny 200ml in an extremely thin glass, are not on the digital menu and cost 250uah (over €5!) - they are not worth it
- Novella - upmarket (expensive) restaurant, same menu as Biblioteka in Lviv, see review there
- Bowl House - they were out of "Tom Yam" soup so tried the Bowl-salad Brize (409uah / €8.50) with prawns and tuna. This isn't a lot of food, it's ok for a girl on a diet, but not for a bro trying to maintain his muscle. The clientele on a Saturday afternoon was was mostly women having a drink in their Sex & The City groups. The fresh orange juice was tiny no more than 200ml which wasn't worth it for 145uah (€3). Wifi 5/5 Mbit/s
- Druzi - different menu to the one in Lviv. The one in Lviv is better but unfortunately this one still has the tourist prices. The cheesecakes with vanilla cream and blueberries was ok but nothing to write home about
- Khreschatyk St - the main high street in central Kyiv
- TSUM - upmarket department store with the usual brands and a couple restaurants / cafes on the top floor
- ТРЦ Gulliver - upmarket shopping mall
- St. Andrew's Church
- St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery
- [Volodymyr The Great Monument](Volodymyr The Great Monument)
- [Glass Bridge](Glass Bridge) - good view over part of the city
- Arka Svobody Ukrayinsʹkoho Narodu - giant arch
- Khreshchatyy Park
- St. Sophia's Cathedral
- St. Volodymyr's Cathedral
- Парк Шевченко - park
TODO:
- Milk Bar
- Knyazhyy Hrad - more affordable restaurant than some of these others
- Ministry of Desserts
- Мама Фокача & Папа Чача
- The Burger - was close by 9pm on a Monday night instead of open until 10pm advertised on Google Maps
- DOM #10 - upmarket very expensive restaurant with exquisite menu - an experience place. You're looking at €30 per main here, which for Ukraine is crazy, and they have a truffle & black truffle menu of dishes
- Lofter Restaurant - steaks
- Chicot - highly rated but no online menu
- Sanatrelo - Georgian
- Chichiko - Georgian
- Chachapuri - Georgian
A small city on the Western edge of Ukraine, far from the war. Much more peaceful than Kyiv's frequent air raids but you'll run out of things to do and eat after a few days.
- Diana Cafe - excellent location and very reasonably priced breakfasts - the roast beef breakfast with two eggs is good here and very affordable for 215 UAH (€4.50). They don't have fresh squeezed juices unfortunately. Wifi is open with no password (Fest Client) 2.5/2 Mbit/s
- Friends / Druzi Cafe - gentrified cafe with good food menu, tables, plugs, couches, and large garden terrace, Breakfast until 2pm, sweet breakfasts for 230-285 UAH (€6). The Borscht with torn veal for 175 + 65uah (€5) was surprisingly good, and comes with strong rye bread and sour cream which enhance and contrasts flavours very well. It is not a "bacon sandwich" as the menu describes as a westerner would understand that but more like 3 pieces of triple stacked rye bread with a thin layer of bacon fat in between them - it works very, very well. TODO: try the hashbrown with roast beef and horseradish cream sauce for 305uah for breakfast or later in the day try the beef stew with mash for 325 (€7). They also have fresh orange / grapefruit juices in both 200ml for 145 (€3) or double size not on the menu for 400ml sizes (€6). Wifi 70/79 Mbit/s
- Svit Kavy (Rynok Sq.) - chain of two with slightly different menus - fresh juices, eggs breakfasts, good selection of teas as well as coffees, pancakes, sandwiches. The veal half sandwich on rye bread is only available at this one, for only 200uah it's a good deal and despite being under the "snacks" section on the menu it's a fairly substantial smaller meal. Wifi is open without a password, Svit Kavy network, but slow 0.9/0.4 Mbit/s
- Lviv Croissants - widespread chain, cheap and good quality large croissants with beef, chicken or other fillings. Also found in Kiev
- Holy Moly - trendy hipster bar restaurant with good selection of burgers but at tourist prices eg 400uah (€8+), which is expensive by local standards. The "Moly Never Cry" burger was very good with crispy onion rings, bacon and all the usual salad. They also have fresh squeezed orange / grapefruit / lemon juice for 140 uah (€3). Wifi 24/25 Mbit/s
- Biblioteka - upmarket (expensive) restaurant with lovely interior and very good food but tourist prices. I blew €25 on lunch here, which for Ukraine is quite expensive. The guacamole starter with lime, focaccia and smoked paprika was tasty but a bit small for my liking. The beef soup was very good but then it should be for 375uah (nearly €8) - it contains bavette (a specific cut of beef) slices, veal broth, garlic, ginger, chilli pepper, cherry tomatoes, pickled red onion and linguine cooked just right, al dente. The pork steak with mash was amazing, a fine dining experience with burgundy sauce, a moat of fine mash and caramelized onions on top of the pork steak. Unfortunately it's priced at 399uah plus 100uah per 100g, so you won't know exactly how much it costs until you get your bill, but roughly 550-600uah. The menu is also entirely only (QR codes on the tables), and bill can be paid online the same way, but the online menu is not properly translated with many parts stuck in Ukrainian, not English, and even the picture vs description was clearly wrong on one item which appears as a lamb shank but described as a pasta dish. Wifi is fast and open with no password (Biblioteka Guest) 88/91 Mbit/s
- Medivnya 1979 - Restoran Ukrayinsʹkoyi Kukhni - good quality restaurant with good menu and good seating - has a small outdoor row of tables to people watch the main street, good interior seating and a large rear terrace. The beef tenderloin with carrot & citrus puree was very good in both quality and flavour, not a large portion, but fine dining, which leaves space for dessert! The chocolate walnut cake with cherry compote and vanilla ice cream was so good I'd go back for that alone. The kitchen closes at 22:30. Wifi 4/1 Mbit/s even in the rear terrace.
- Cukor RED - the summer breakfast is a bit pricy at 390 UAH (€8) but is very good and well rounded with 2 poached eggs with parmesan, salmon, rye bread, avocado, labneh, edamame, strawberries and blueberries. They do have fresh squeezed orange juice, and table water, both served with solid glasses. They also have a full english breakfast, eggs royale (eggs benedict with salmon) and a version with seared salmon. The wifi connected but didn't work for me
TODO:
- Atlas
- Black Honey - 4.7
- Cukor BLACK - 4.4
- Grand Cafe Leopolis - 4.5 upmarket, breakfast until 1pm
- Ресторація Боїмів - 4.8 but pricier and doesn't open until 12pm
- Cent Aura - 4.6 but no english menu online
- Restaurant 52 - upmarket hotel restaurant with lovely interior and a bar, but prices seem surprisingly reasonable for a "hotel restaurant", as such as usually overpriced. Closes at 9pm though. The best Ukrainian borscht soup I've had in Ukraine, medium sized, good flavour, served with sour cream and two small warm buns. The chicken kebab was as bland as one would expect, try something else next time, although the pickled onions on the side were good. I had a side of mash with it which while soft was too bland even for mash (my mash is far superior). The chocolate cherry cake was well balanced though, not too sweet. Wifi 48/34 Mbit/s
- Atelier. Food & Crafts - good quality food and reasonable prices, opposite Books Market. I wanted to try the veal cheeks but they'd run out so I had the half chicken with roasted pepper sauce, naan bread and iceberg lettuce and pickled red onion side salad, which was all better than expected. The toasted sourdough bread with sun-dried tomato pesto was also better than expected as starter. Has wifi
- TREF cinema cafe - spacious upmarket interior with nice bar area and huge tv and two levels of indoor seating around a large internal dome balcony, as well as outdoor seating in the Victory Arboretum park. The menu is decent and reasonably priced. The borscht veal soup is smaller than other places but tasted good. The "blue anchan" latte is a novelty here - a blue tea from flower buds of the herbaceous Liana Clitoria Ternatea. The coconut-Parmesan is a cheese dessert with no added sugar on a thin chocolate biscuit base so not very sweet and came in a blue rather than red dusting as pictured. Has wifi
- True - decent food but they often close much earlier than Google Maps says - 10pm officially but twice I've been turned away at 8:55pm and then 8:20pm on Thursday and Friday nights due to lack of customers they decided to close at 9pm and even half an hour before refused to serve food, only drinks - perhaps because it is near the park and so gets more day time trade. The bean borscht soup is quite substantial and full of vegetables. The cossack style pork steak covered in tomato sauce was pretty decent and lean, with pickled red onions on the side. Has wifi
- Mr. Chef - huge chicken / veal toasted wraps for 250uah (€5), this could easily feed 2 people, I left 1/3 of it. This is a good budget choice. Has wifi
- Books Market - coffee shops and bars in a park strip
- Gagarinn Plaza - probably the best mall they have in Odessa, but that's not saying much - there is a sushi restaurant on the 3rd floor that I can't find on Google Maps which unfortunately puts cream cheese in everything, but if you get just the salmon and tuna maki, it is decent
- Arcadia City - popular outdoor plaza with shops, restaurants & clubs, as well plus an aquatic park & ice-skating rink, between Arcadia Beach and Garaginn Plaza mall
- Level Karaoke Club - mostly locals, asks for reservation despite being half empty, fussy at entrance, and no gym bro vests. Otherwise reasonably ok
Not Recommended:
- "Mick O'Neills" Gastro Pub - expensive mediocre food, don't eat here. Popular socializing place with a pool table, this might be ok for a late night drink (up to 11pm!) but the food was disappointing, especially for €10 per dish (at least the other tourist places charging international prices have higher quality). The Jack Daniel's burger had no Jack Daniel's taste, you will mistake it for a regular bland burger. Their excuse is they've fried a tiny amount of onions in it but even if you just eat those little pieces by themselves you can't taste the Jack Daniel's. Wetherspoon's Jack Daniel's burger in the UK at least has Jack Daniel's sauce and is a completely different experience. The fresh apple juice was ok, served in a heavy whisky glass, but the orange and other juices are overpriced. I ate here was because most other places were closed by 9-10pm, so you can keep it as one of the few later places, but you might want to save your money and just get a McDonalds or KFC if you want mediocre late night food. Has wifi
TODO:
- Ресторан Рибний Ряд - 4.6 fish restaurant with excellent menu, can get expensive
- Legend - 4.6 medievil restaurant, no recent online english menu
- Shiko - technically a dessert restaurant but also has a decent mains menu including pork medallions. The dessert menu is extensive
- [Yourz Space Bistro](Yourz Space Bistro) - 4.8 but I couldn't find it
- Uzbetsʹka Kukhnya - 4.7 Ukbekh restaurant - good kebab oriented menu at reasonable prices
- Kachka - 4.6 Ukrainian, out east nearer the beaches, no online english menu
- [Мангал Премиум](Мангал Премиум) - 4.7 Armenian restaurant, no menu online
- Mekhana - 4.5 Bulgarian restaurant - no recent online or english menu
- Domashnii ochah - 4.6 but quite far south between central and malls district where Arcadia Plaza and Gregarinn Plaza are
- CityBUFFET "Витражъ" - 4.6 - no recent online or english menu, there are a couple of these, find out why they're popular
- Unit Cafe